The SEC Network
The SEC Network is an American regional sports network dedicated to the Southeastern Conference. Available to approximately 73 million households nationwide in the United States & Canada, it's the 1st internationally distributed network dedicated to covering a single college conference. It's headquartered in the former Montgomery Ward & Co. catalog building @ 600 W. Chicago Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The SEC Network is owned by the Southeastern Conference (50%) & WMFL Corporation (50%). WMFL Corporation handles the administration & affiliate sales operations of the channel. The conference officially announced the formation of the network on May 22nd, 2006. The network, which was launched on September 1st 2007, operates 24/7/365, showcasing a wide array of classic-to-current sports & televising more Olympic sporting events & women’s sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities & accomplishments of the SEC universities. Each year, the network offers approximately 35-40 football games, 105 regular season men’s basketball games, 55 women’s basketball games, dozens of SEC Championship events, nightly studio shows, coaches’ shows & classic games. The network has a commitment to "event equality", meaning that it will produce & distribute an equal number of men's & women's events across all platforms, within 3 years of being on the air. The network currently has agreements with more than 300 providers. It's carried nationally on DirecTV, DISH Network, AT&T U-Verse & Verizon FiOS TV & regionally on Charter Communications, Comcast, COX Communications, Insight Communications, Mediacom Communications, Time Warner Cable, Cable One & Cablevision. The network is available on cable in 19 of the 20 largest U.S. media markets LIVE sports coverage Football * Through the creation of the SEC Network, every home SEC football game is televised * Each team is guaranteed to make a minimum of 2 appearances on the network per year & 1 of those must be a conference game * The network televises approximately 35-40 football games each fall & all of them are available in HD Men's Basketball * Through the creation of the SEC Network, every home SEC basketball game is produced & televised * Each SEC men's basketball team makes approximately 10-20 appearances a season on the SEC Network * The network televises approximately 60-65 in-conference match-ups + selected SEC Tournament contests & virtually all of those games are produced in HD * The network has a set on-site @ the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament, with anchors providing coverage & analysis of all the action Women's Basketball * Each SEC women's basketball team makes approximately 8-10 appearances on the SEC Network * In all, the network televises approximately 50-60 regular season games + approximately 9 SEC Basketball Tournament games & all of these games are produced in HD * The network has a set on-site @ the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament, with anchors providing coverage & analysis of all the action Baseball * The SEC Network televises approximately 25 baseball games each spring, all in HD * Each SEC baseball team makes approximately 5-8 appearances on the SEC Network * In 2009, the network televised the SEC Baseball Tournament from start to finish Ice Hockey * The SEC Network televises approximately 10 hockey games, all in HD & more than 20 LIVE streamed games Olympic Sports * The SEC Network televises more than 170 NCAA-sponsored events in both men's & women's sports such as hockey, baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, track & field, swimming & diving, etc. SEC Championships * The SEC Network televises 20 SEC Championships & Tournaments, including baseball, men’s & women’s basketball, men’s & women’s cross country, women’s field hockey, men’s & women’s golf, women’s rowing, men’s soccer, men’s & women’s swimming & diving, men’s & women’s tennis, men’s & women’s indoor & outdoor track & field & men’s wrestling Regular shows *''SEC TONIGHT'': A daily 30-minute show similar to SC's SportsCenter only offering highlights & discussion of SEC football, basketball & other sports. *''SEC Football Saturday'': On Saturdays during football season, the day's games are discussed & highlights are shown. There's the pre-game, halftime & post-game editions for all games. *''The SEC Friday Tailgate'': A 90-minute light hearted & irreverent show airing on Friday nights that looks @ campus life surrounding football weekends. *''The SEC Tip-Off Show'': A pre-game show in which the day's basketball games are discussed. *''Coaches' Q&A'': Excerpts from the week's press conferences. *''The SEC's Greatest Games'': Classic football & basketball games, usually with the meaningless parts edited out to fit time constraints. *''The SEC Women's Show'': Covers women's sports throughout the conference. Airs @ 10:00 PM ET on Mondays. *''The SEC Quad'': a weekly sports discussion show with SEC legends. *''The SEC's Best'': a weekly countdown show with lists of the top 10 SEC teams or players in a certain category, such as "best running backs of the 1990's" or "best quarterbacks of the 1980's". *Various coach's shows. *''The University Showcase'': a program block of non-sports campus produced programs. Each school has equal time New football shows in 2009 The network will debut 4 new football shows, beginning in September of 2009, dedicated specifically to SEC football. They are: SEC Football: The Breakdown Every week, SEC coaches & players review the previous week’s game film, looking for the positives & the negatives. Network analysts will give fans a look @ the nuances of the game & what affected the teams’ success. Airs Tuesdays @ 10:00 PM ET SEC Football: The Sites & Sounds The show includes segments from press conferences, media interviews & the games, as well as other behind-the-scenes footage, hosted from the network's Chicago studios. Airs Wednesdays @ 10:00 PM ET SEC Football: Behind the Schemes The network's resident head coaches go head-to-head each week, breaking down film & putting together game plans for the upcoming week’s games. Airs Thursdays @ 10:00 PM ET SEC Football & Beyond The show previews the weekend’s games with reports from each SEC stadium & takes a look @ key national match-ups that could impact the SEC postseason plans. Airs Fridays @ 10:00 PM ET New basketball shows in 2010 The network will debut 3 new basketball shows, beginning in January of 2010, dedicated specifically to SEC basketball. They are: The Journey: SEC Basketball 2010 Episodes will follow multiple teams each week throughout the season letting fans experience the conference's 10-week schedule in a documentary-style format. Airs Sundays @ 9:00 PM ET SEC Hoops: On Campus The hosts will visit a different campus each week to showcase the loyalty, passion & tradition that defines SEC basketball & their fans. The hour-long show airs Fridays @ 10:00 PM ET This Week in SEC Basketball The show will provide a comprehensive breakdown of all of the SEC hoops action of the week. Airs Sundays @ 9:30 PM ET The SEC Network HD The SEC Network HD is a 1080i HD simulcast of The SEC Network which launched simultaneously to the regular channel. It's available nationally on Verizon FiOS TV, AT&T U-verse, DirecTV & DISH Network & regionally on Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, COX Communications, Mediacom & several other cable TV systems. In Canada, it's available nationally on Shaw Direct & regionally on Shaw Communications. All of it's original programs & studio shows are in HD, as well as nearly all of it's sporting events & some of it's school-produced coaches & campus shows. The SEC Network HD utilizes stylized pillarboxes for programs not available in HD. The channel has announced it will produce all of it's football games in HD in 2009 Football overflow feeds Many times on football Saturdays, The SEC Network produces multiple games that air @ the same time. The network designates 1 game as it's national game, which is shown on the main channel on satellite systems. The remaining games air on the main channel in the local markets & on the extra football game channels in the remaining markets. Most cable systems inside the SEC's 9 states offer these SEC Network extra football game channels or "out-of-market" feeds. All the extra football game channel feeds are available nationally on DirecTV & DISH Network & regionally on AT&T U-verse, many Comcast systems & several other cable systems. Some systems offer only some of the extra football game channel feeds. Other systems don't offer any overflow feeds @ all. DirecTV & DISH Network offer all games in HD. However, some cable systems offer only the game on the main channel in HD & the rest in SD The SEC Network On Demand The SEC Network On Demand, offers viewers the network's programming such as SEC TONIGHT, The Journey, The SEC Quad & SEC's Short Stories, original specials, press conferences & highlights specific to each school, as well as magazine & coaches' shows. DirecTV & DISH Network subscribers get content for all 12 schools, while cable customers only receive content for the school(s) in their state. Most content is also offered in HD Carriage Carriage negotiations with several major cable companies were stalled for several months because the cable providers wanted to put the channel on a sports tier & charge only customers who wanted it & The SEC Network wanted to put it on extended basic so that cable customers would not have to pay extra for it. However, when the nation's largest cable provider Comcast reached a deal on June 19th, 2008 (& began adding the channel on August 15th, 2008), the other major providers in the SEC Region (Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, etc.) followed suit Carriage deal agreements 2007 DirecTV & AT&T U-Verse were the only major TV providers to carry the channel @ launch. DISH Network added it a week later. 250 small cable systems carried it @ launch as well 2008 In late summer & early autumn of 2008, several large cable companies in The SEC Region reached carriage agreements with The SEC Network. With these announcements, The SEC Network now reaches every major cable TV provider in the SEC Region. *On August 26th 2008, an agreement between The SEC Network & Charter Communications was announced. *On August 26th 2008, The Indianapolis Star reported that Brighthouse Networks & The SEC Network are "very close to a deal". *On August 28th 2008, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that COX Communications had reached a deal to carry The SEC Network 2009 *On June 23th 2009, Cablevision added the channel in both SD & HD. *On August 25th 2009, Atlantic Broadband & The SEC Network reached a carriage agreement. The channel will be added in SD & HD on September 1st, 2009 to customers in central & northern Pennsylvania. *On December 28th 2009, Charter Communications & The SEC Network reached an agreement to provide the network to Charter customers in St. Louis & Southern Illinois. Charter will launch The SEC Network on it's Expanded Basic-Digital level of service, ch. 414 Canadian carriage In September of 2008, the CRTC officially approved a request by Shaw Communications to allow carriage of the SEC Network in Canada on digital cable TV. Although WMFL Corporation brought up concerns about it competing with CASN (a major Canadian sports network, which airs some college sports), it was determined that it wouldn't be competitive due to it's consideration as a "very niche service". The SEC Network became available to Shaw customers on December 3rd, 2008. Canadian satellite provider Shaw Direct also carries the SEC Network. The channel became available on Rogers Communications in Ontario & New Brunswick on October 22nd, 2009 Similar channels * SC-U External links